Features Mills Sawmilling
Sawmill management optimize in Richmond!

June 15, 2016 - More than 80 people, including 55 mill managers from across Western Canada and the U.S. came out to the OptiSaw West mill optimization and automation forum to hear from speakers about ways to enhance their sawmill operations.

The conference centre at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond, B.C. was packed with a who’s who of mill managers that listened intensely to the speakers as they discussed different ways to optimize sawmill operations including data-driven sawmilling; the radio frequency continuous re-drying process; continuous dry kiln technology; the latest in vision scanning; maximizing sawmill investment ROI; utilizing planer grading optimization to enhance branding; and optimizing log scaling operations through the use of scanners.

The show floor was filled with questions for FPInnovations researcher Peter Dyson and Springer Microtec’s chief technology officer Norvin Laudon as they discussed the use of log scanners to measure logs for payment in North America.

Their presentation focused on the first log scanner in North America to be certified by Measurement Canada for trade, the Microtec Logeye, which was recently installed at Interfor’s Acorn sawmill in Delta, B.C.

The presentation offered a look at the pilot project’s installation, certification process, and cost benefits of scanner scaling.

Before implementing the scanning technology, the mill needed to manually scale 100 per cent of its logs off site at a dry land sort facility. Now, manual scaling has been reduced to approximately 2.5 per cent and has created significant cost savings for the mill.

Canadian Forest Industries had the opportunity to see the scanning process firsthand during a tour of Interfor’s Acorn mill this week and there will be a full-length feature discussing the technology and its benefits in the July/August issue, which will also feature the official DEMO International 2016 Show Guide. 

The automation and optimization forum also offered mill managers a sneak peek at the results from Canadian Forest Industries’ national logging contractor survey – the first to be performed in 15 years! The full results of the survey will be available in the September/October issue of Canadian Forest Industries.

The optimization and automation forum also featured exhibitor booths from sponsors USNR, The BID Group of Companies, Lucidyne, Raptor Integration, Wolftek, VAB Solutions, HewSaw, Autolog, Valutec, JoeScan, FinScan, Springer Microtec and several networking sessions. 

June 15, 2016  By  Andrew Snook

FPInnovations' Vincent Lavoie discusses the radio frequency continuous re-drying process and FPInnovation's trials combining RF technology with a streamlined process to identify and re-dry wets.